£12bn cost of red tape and targets

A red tape army of regulators, inspectors, paymasters and policymakers is costing taxpayers £12bn a year, Chancellor Gordon Brown has admitted.

The figure, buried in the small print of his pre-Budget report, is the cost of running public services with a detailed regime of targets and control from Whitehall.

It emerged as the head of the Civil Service conceded that teachers and doctors are spending too much time filling in forms.

Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Cabinet Secretary, admitted that many Government targets were pointless or easily fiddled. Two Whitehall reviews will seek ways to slash costs, axe bureaucrats' jobs and remove pointless targets.

But shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin accused Mr Brown of a 60% surge in bureaucracy. He said a 37% rise in NHS spending had brought only five% more treatment. 'There are more administrators than beds in the NHS today,' he added.

Whitehall bureaucracy eats up 4% of public spending, the pre-Budget report showed.